Nick the Eraser: Live and Learn
by Theanimedude
Summary: Hanging on the edge of tomorrow from the works of yesterday- that's the good life, just spending a long, calm time with your family. Of course, though, it can't last forever...
1. Chapter 1

Theanimedude: Well, I suppose it's about time I come back, eh?

Fang: Hn.

Theanimedude: … Oh Lord, where's Nick this time?

Fang: No clue. Don't really care.

Theanimedude: Geez, at least you're honest.

Fang: Hn.

Theanimedude: Alright question this time around is from TheStuffILike, for Dylan.

Dylan: Wha-me?

Theanimedude: We haven't even introduced you yet…

Fang: (growls animalistically)

Theanimedude: Okay, so, there are a lot of different opinions on Dylan flying around, and I'll be honest- I don't outright hate him. I mean, he had good intentions, even if he **did** do some kind of stupid things.

Fang: ROWR!

Theanimedude: (types a wall up between Dylan and Fang) Da keyboard haz da powah. Anyways, Dylan. Your question is a dare to eat a caned spider.

Dylan: "Caned spider?"

Theanimedude: Yup. I guess you just have to whack a spider with a cane and then eat it.

Dylan: ... I've done worse things.

Nick: Which one? (holds up a tiny spider in one hand, tarantula in the other)

Dylan: Um, smaller one.

Theanimedude: Oh lord. Um, this isn't going to be funny. Nick, disclaimer.

Nick: Theanimedude owns Sara and I. He also own Camo and Espio, as well as Dak. The original ideas for characters Cato, Kimmy and Kiki were supplied by Pennycat11. The following is a fan-based parody. Maximum Ride and all its respecting characters and titles belong to James Patterson. Please support the official release.

Theanimedude: Story now. He ate the spider. This wasn't a very funny author's note... And since it isn't, I'll say it again-  
I know you've been coming and reading. I appreciate that. But seriously, I really appreciate reviews too. Soooo I'll give you the next chappie, and you give me some reviews? Please? Will it help if I say please?

Nick the Eraser: Live and Learn chapter 1

Nick hadn't left his bed ever since he got there. We realized how big a risk we were taking, but… Nick was worth it. After all, we'd caused him some grief in the past, intentional or not. We loved him. We seriously loved him. We had to show that to him then. And the fact that Doctor Martinez and Ella were willing to offer their home to us until he healed didn't hurt either.

We brought food up to him; we talked to him in turns. He talked all the time now, and he acted really cheerful. He was great, but he never got up. He just refused to. We took it in stride for a little while. But then as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into MONTHS, and we'd been in one place for all the time, I got really worried. Everybody else was just happy to have a home and be alive. Nobody else saw a reason to be worried. Nick was happy, the flock was happy, Christina was happy.

And yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong.

No attacks from derasers, erasers, strikers, blenders, nothing? Why were we so safe? It didn't make sense. Safety does not compute. So what could have happened that would make our lives so utterly secure?

But maybe it was time to just go with the flow. Maybe it was alright that everything was… well, alright. And that only left Nick's adamancy to remain in bed on my list of problems. I waited until late one night and visited his room, seeing him how he'd always been lately- lying on his bed. Sara was curled up beside him, not under the covers, but clinging to him nonetheless. Christina sat at the foot of the bed, going through an old picture book that I thought I recognized.

"The better to see you with, my dear!" she growled in a low voice that raised a few chortles from Nick, but had Sara flinching and clenching tighter around him.

"That mean ol' wolf's nasty, huh Christy?" Sara asked, pale eyes wide, trusting and fearful.

"You know it, she told her in response giving her a grin. "But he's nothing your brother couldn't handle."

"Ain't that the truth," Nick puffed up his chest with pride, smirking in a snarky way.

I smiled and knocked on the already open door to alert them to my presence, and they each looked over to me with surprise.

"Hey, Max," Nick greeted me, forcing himself to sit up and pulling Sara into his lap. "What are you up to?"

"Just thought I'd check on you," I said honestly, leaning against the door. "You plannin' on gettin' up any time soon?"

His face fell as Christina looked at him with consideration. "Yeah, you seem alright to me."

"I am alright," he murmured. "I'm just... I don't know."

"Don't know what?" Sara asked him, staring at him with hope on her face. Bambi eyes just sort of came naturally to her when she wasn't in a fight. She was just so amazingly adorable. I was so glad that she was still alive.

"I just... I don't want to talk about it," he said, his eyes downcast.

"You can tell us anything, you know," I reminded him in a soft tone. I was getting more used to it these days.

"I..." he whispered something under his breath before pushing himself out of bed, wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, his new uniform. "I don't feel like I have a reason to."

"What?" I asked, bewildered.

"Think about it, you three," he told me as he walked over to the door where I was standing. "We've been perfectly safe for the past few days. We have a home. Everybody's having a good time. As long as there's that, I don't need to leave this room."

"And if we stopped visiting you, would you come out then?" I asked him, not even attempting to hide my undertones of doubt.

"I guess so," he told me. "I don't have anything against you guys, but I'm more tired than I've ever been in my life. And I can finally just relax. So that's what I've been doing. I'll come out if you really want me too."

"No, that's alright," I responded with a smile. "I know exactly what you mean. I'll leave you three alone."

I couldn't suppress the warm feeling I had as I left the room. Nick had looked so peaceful, so happy. And there ain't nothin' wrong with that.

3-3-3-3-3

"I'm sorry," Christina whispered long after all the others had gone to bed. Nick looked over to her from his spot beside her on the bed with confusion.

"For what?"

"Where'd you get this scar?" he asked her, his hand going over the ghost of a gash in her arm. She looked up at his concerned face and laughed quietly.

"Something that happened a long time ago," she responded in a whisper. "I don't really remember."

"You never forget a scar," Nick whispered seriously. "Like this one here."

He gestured to a small, vaguely pink line, about an inch long and a centimeter thick that was stationed directly under his left ear.

"I got that when I was four," he told her. "A bunch of erasers ganged up on me, and one got a claw pretty deep in there."

"And you remember that?" she asked with bewilderment. "Haven't you been in plenty of fights for your life?"

"Too many to count," he agreed. "Though as of times of late, they've been fights for my family's lives."

"Yeah," she muttered, looking down at her scarred arm. "Don't get mad, okay?"

"Hm?"

"Ari did this," she went on. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry about it."

"That son of a..." he stopped, swearing under his breath. "When is he going to stop coming back? Max and I have killed him a few times now."

"Don't ask me," she shrugged. "Does it matter?"

" ... Not really," he said after some thought. "We're safe here."

A slow, comfortable silence passed through as she leaned her head against the side of his neck.

"You wanna know what's kept me fighting these past few months?" he asked her, staring up at the ceiling as his arm wrapped around her thin waist.

"Hm?"

"Don't laugh," he went on. "It wasn't the flock. It wasn't Max, heck, it wasn't even the fact that I was alive. I'd considered suicide a couple of times, even." She stared at him in awe. Her Nick had considered suicide? No way.

"Baby, don't talk like that," she whispered, hugging him tighter against herself. "I don't want to think about that."

"It's true," he murmured into her hair. It smelled much cleaner than it had used to. "One day, though, the day after I actually met everybody, I was alone on a cliff, just staring into the clouds. I thought to myself, "What if I could just fly out to a deserted island and be with the flock forever?"

"I knew that it was impossible," he kept up. "There was nowhere the school couldn't find us, and Max would never leave her flock. But there was always "what if." So I had to hold onto "what if" no matter what. That's what kept me going. And this may not be a deserted island, but it's safe. And we can stay here as long as we want to."

"Wow," she whispered. "That's... a pretty cute story."

"Well," he chuckled nervously. "I told you not to laugh."

"Laugh? I'm trying not to cry!" she responded. "I never thought things could happen that way with you."

"Well, they did."

Another comfortable silence came and went.

"I guess you were kind of my "what if," she told him. "You taught me how to fly, how to love. I do love you. You're all I've really got."

The silence that followed wasn't comfortable for either of them.

"I'm sorry," they whispered simultaneously.

"For what?" Christina asked him.

"I'm sorry I acted like I didn't care about you when I thought Sara was dead," he admitted. "I should have paid more attention to you."

"And I should have just given you your space," she berated herself. "I wasn't your main concern right then. I didn't have to be."

"Right now, though," he whispered. "You are."

He leaned forward and kissed her, and she knew that everything would be just perfect from then on.

3-3-3-3-3

"Oh my..." her hand went up to her mouth as she looked down at him, kneeling before her. "Don't you think we're a bit young?"

"We don't know when we're going to expire," he told her, his eyes focused on her own. "Now might be the only time."

"I-I-"

"I've made my choice," his eyes were focused on her intensely; his gaze pleading and determined at the same time. "What's yours?"

"Doctor Martinez!" Christina shouted down the stairs before turning to run to her.

"That's your choice?" Nick called after her with confusion.

She was so excited she thought she might burst. Nick had asked her THE question. He wanted to marry her!

"What?!" Doctor Martinez gasped when she delivered the news. "D-Don't you think you're a bit young? Isn't it a bit early?!"

"Like Nick said," Christina continued, gasping for breath. "We don't know when we're going to expire! We might not get another chance!"

" ... There are some legal problems here," the doctor told her as Nick came into the room. "But... It can be arranged in private."

"Yes!" Christina jumped at Nick and threw her arms around him, to which he laughed, lifting her into the air. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe this!"

"Everybody you want to come is already here, right?" Doctor Martinez asked them with a warm smile.

"Except maybe C and E," Nick said thoughtfully, putting her down, though not letting go. "Rick too. Alpha... do we invite Alpha?"

"I think Leroy should come," Christina responded. "He deserves a spot in our wedding."

"Our wedding." Nick smiled at the thought. "Alright, let me call Rick. I've got his phone number."

The door slammed open as Max dashed in, shortly followed by everybody else.

"I heard screaming," Max told them, out of breath. "What's going on?!"

"Oh, nothing," Nick said innocently. "It's a surprise."

"Oh!" Angel clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening.

"No way!" Sara mirrored her stance, looking back and forth between the couple. "You're not serious!"

"What? WHAT?!" Nudge looked at Angel and Sara in a bewilderment.

"What the heck is going on here?!" Iggy was the most confused, seemingly.

"You'll all find out eventually," Christina said mischievously, sticking out her tongue.

3-3-3-3-3

"They're all ready?" he asked him one last time.

"For the love of God, yes," he whispered exasperatedly. "We're almost ready to get this all under way. Just go."

"By then end of this, he'll be either dead or ours," he smirked.

"Yeah, so don't screw it up. Get a move on."

"Roger."


	2. Chapter 2

Theanimedude: Crap's about to get real.

Fang: But not real enough for this to not be a fanfiction.

Theanimedude: (sobbing) yes, not that real. But pretty dang close. So here's the next chappie.

Nick the Eraser: Live and Learn

"That's strange," Nick muttered. "I can't get a hold of Rick. The phone just goes straight to dial tone."

"That IS weird," Christina mused. "After you left, he told me that he always has his phone switched on."

"You don't think it might be an issue that he's underground?" I asked him casually, raising my eyebrow.

Silence.

"Well, that might be it..." Nick thought aloud.

"But why would he bother to keep a phone, let alone give us his number, if he knew his phone wasn't going to work?" Christina asked herself, her hand on her chin, looking at the floor. "Something about this doesn't seem right..."

"We've been gone for months," Kimmy said, having been in the room sharing a chair with her sister.

"A lot can happen in months, especially when a group of a couple thousand mutants is left without a leader," Kiki stated, having a thinking look set about her.

"Ah, geez," Nick muttered, not even seeming to notice the fact that two four year olds had thought of this whilst he hadn't. Those girls usually acted so cute and cuddly, but lately they seemed to have aged forty years or so. More than one thing was off here...

"How come nobody ever noticed such an obvious thing?" I piped up, looking back and forth between Nick and Christina. "How come it took trying to call some guy in the underground to remember that you lead an organization dedicated to liberating pretty much the ENTIRE FLIPPING WORLD?! You've never even told anyone in the flock! That's kind of big stuff isn't it?! Shouldn't we know?!"

"... I don't know," Nick whispered, confusion marring his features. "That just doesn't make sense. I'd forgotten about it up until now."

"Then how come we remembered?" Kiki asked, looking up to him.

"This is really weird..."

"You know what?" I looked at Nick as the flock came in through the door, hair wind-tossed and faces flushed. "I don't believe in coincidences, especially not one this huge. We need to figure out what happened, and everything points to the underground."

"Then I guess that's where we're headed," Nick said, standing from his seat. "Man, and after I'd gotten so comfortable here..."

3-3-3-3-3

We left, telling Doctor Martinez that we would be back eventually. How soon, though, we didn't specify.

"Man," Nick cursed himself under his breath. "And I left the day we were supposed to launch a huge attack on one of the schools, too."

"I'd blame this on you being stupid," Fang told him. "But all of you forgot."

"You didn't think about it once the whole time we were there," Angel told him. Total was wrapped in her arms, fidgeting.

"I don't know about you crazy kids," he said, keeping energy out of his voice. "But something about this seems really odd to me."

"I know," Nudge piped up, leaving it at that. None of us felt at ease.

Christina looked over to Sara, asking "What do you think about all this?"

Sara was strangely silent, as were the little twins.

"Sara," Nick looked to his little sister, eyes fraught with worry. "Are you alright?"

I looked over to see what he was talking about, finding Sara flying straight ahead, and her eyes were half-closed, unresponsive.

"Sara?" Nick started to ask again. "Ar-"

"It's starting," she said in a monotonous, grave voice. What?

"We're almost done," Kiki told us, pretty much the same as Sara. "Nobody of importance is left."

"Pretty soon there will be nothing left. Enjoy this world while you're still on it," Kimmy intoned.

"Okay, what the he-" I started before I was cut off by a surprised, garbled scream from Nick, who's wings furled against his back before he fell. My heart skipped a beat.

"Nick!" I shouted, and we flew down to where he lay, unmoving.

"Agh!" Total shouted. "Can you not HEAR that?! What the heck is that noise?!"

"What are you talking about?!" I asked him incredulously as we landed. "Crazy do-"

"I-I hear it too!" Nick interrupted, his hands held firmly over his ears. "Ugh, it's so freaking-" He clenched his teeth together, lying on his stomach, face down in the dirt.

Then- for a split second- I high-pitched sound hit my ears, and I shouted out in pain and surprise, along with the rest of the flock. Then it was over, and we stood there blinking idiotically at the ground.

"What... was that?" Iggy asked, his hands slowly receding from his ears.

"I-I'm not sure," Nick said shakily, slowly pushing himself up. "But I don't like it. We have to keep moving, right Max?"

"Yeah," I nodded, my ears still ringing. "Everyone good to go now?"

Eight "yups" came. There should have been eleven.

"Hang on, where are the girls?" I asked, looking around.

"Sara? Kimmy? Kiki?" Nick looked up, not finding them anywhere either. What's going- AUGH!"

He fell to his knees in the dirt, his pupils dilating sharply. He inhaled before exhaling raggedly repetitively.

"Nick!" I shouted, dropping to my knees beside him and placing a hand on his back. "What happened?!"

Then- the most surreal thing happened. Let's recap- I have been mutated, attacked by metaphorical werewolves, put in a freaking PRESERVATION CASE, and yet I still had room to be surprised.

Then again, what happened would have surprised just about anyone.

The place we were standing in seemed to explode with blinding light before it was replaced with the hawk's cliff.

"What. The. Heck." I looked around as it happened once again, this time at Anne's house. Then, finally, it happened once more, and we were back at Dr. Martinez's place.

"How did we get back here?" Gazzy asked, looking around. "We were just way out there, right?"

"None of this makes any sense," Christina said, walking over to Nick's other side, wrapping his arm around her neck and lifting him to his feet.

"No, it's fine," Nick insisted, shrugging her away. "I-I can stand." He paused as he looked around. "Well... that's new."

"Does anybody know what's going on here?!" I asked in frustration. "Where are your pack, Nick?!"

"I don't know," he murmured, stumbling over to the tree he'd once hidden away from me in. "I'm getting a seriously bad vibe here, though."

"With good reason," a voice said from the tree. Startled, we each looked up to see Nick sitting on a branch, grinning down at us. He was wearing the very same clothes he'd worn the day Fang and I had found him here after he'd tried to leave us- black shirt and cap with blue jeans.

"Is that... me?" the Nick leaning on the tree asked.

"Oh, no," the boy in the tree said, jumping down and landing beside Nick as he took his cap off, revealing a mop of blonde hair. I'll be honest, he was... hot. "I'm just an old friend of yours, come to stop by."

"C-Cat-" Nick couldn't finish saying the name before the guy's fist caught him square in the face, knocking him straight through the tree as it- dematerialized. It was like watching a bunch of pixels disappear.

"Cato?!" Christina took a step back, her face growing paler and paler as he stepped ever closer to her.

I'd heard that name before. This was the guy that Nick had supposedly killed at LEAST twice now. Yet here he was, a sickening grin killing whatever sexiness I might've thought he had.

"Christina!" he laughed as he said her name. "How have you been, sweetheart?"

"Get away from me!" she screamed, turning to run before he grabbed her by her chocolate colored hair, throwing her into the ground as she yelped with pain. We all ran to help her, but suddenly we couldn't move at all. It was like we were paralyzed or something.

"No no no," he tsked, placing a foot on her stomach. "I missed you too much after you left me. My poor friends at the school and I were worried sick about you. But now you're back!"

"Please," she sobbed, not even trying to get away from him. "Please, let me go..."

"Oh, no, baby," he whispered, placing a hand on her neck as he leaned down, a crooked grin on his face. "You're going to come back with me. "We're gonna have lots of fun, just like the good ol' days."

"No!" she hiccupped, struggling against his hold. "Let me go!"

"If it makes you feel any better," Cato sighed dramatically as he lifted her into the air with ease. "I'll be taking Nick with me too. You can be one, big... well, almost happy family."

He laughed as he slung an unconscious Nick over his shoulder, still holding Christina by the neck loosely, but snugly. "You kiddies can come on over if you like. But why don't you take a nap first."

Then, everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

Theanimedude: Okay, we're here. Nick, stay in the car.

Nick: Wha-? Why?!

Theanimedude: Because last time we got groceries with you, furry things DIED.

Nick: (belches rabbit hair) I was hungry...

Fang: Of course you were.

Total: All clear?

Fang: Yeah, Nick doesn't know you're here.

Total: Then let's roll out the questions!

Theanimedude: Okay, today we'll be taking a question from XxXTheDarkOneXxX.

Fang: Sounds cool.

Theanimedude: Yeah, well it's on discount. Oh, it's for you, Fang.

Fang: Hn?

Theanimedude: Ham or tuna?

Fang: ... Ham.

Theanimedude: And there you have it. Discount question answered.

Nudge: HAI GAIZ!

Max: Yo!

Theanimdude: Oh, perfect timing, there're questions for you two, too.

Nudge: Oh, yay! What's mine?

Theanimedude: Your awesome! :-)

Nudge: Aw, thank you! ... But is that really a question?

Max: And for me?

Theanimedude: Do you have any other powers sides super speed?

Max: Weeeeellll... That's a secret! ;-)

Theanimedude: And Total... What's your favorite drink? Convenient question, we're in the beverages isle.

Total: I LOOOOVE Pastis.

Theanimedude: (stares blankly) (slowly reaches for Coca-Cola) Ill just get that for you... And then we'll check out with the next chapter.

Fang: Theanimedude Own Nick and Sara, as well as Dak. The original ideas for characters Cato, Kiki, and Kimmy were supplied by Pennycat11. The following is a fan-based parody. Maximum Ride and all its related characters belong to James Patterson. Please support the official release.

Clerk: Your total is 158 reviews for the series.

Theanimedude: MORE PLZ!

RevieweiveR

Nick the Eraser 3 chapter 3

_Hm? Where am I? Grass... House... Tree... Flock... Nick... Where's Nick?_

I leapt up with a start, seeing my flock passed out on the ground. Nick and Christina were nowhere to be found. Neither were the supposed traitors.

"Guys! Up and at 'em!" I shouted with no response.

"Come on, get your lazy tail feathers in gear!" Still nothing.

I groaned to myself before walking over to Fang and kicking him in the side. His eyes flipped open, and for a split second I saw a panicked expression on his face. Then he was back to being an emotionless rock, jumping to his feet before glaring at me.

"What was that for?" he asked me, rubbing his side.

"For not waking up!" I screamed at him. He cocked an eyebrow, but I just shook my head rapidly. "It doesn't matter! Help me wake everyone up!"

He took the urgency in my voice seriously, and got to work pulling the boys out of slumber.

"Nudge, sweetie, please don't make me hurt you," I whispered affectionately as I knelt down beside the Talkinator. "Just wake up."

"Okay," she said with wide eyes. "Don't hurt me, Max. I was like, sleeping really well, you know? But if you want me to wake up, I can. And like, don't hurt mph-"

"Okay, Nudge," I muttered, lifting her into a sitting position. "Come on."

Gazzy had already woken Angel up, and Angel had already woken Total up, so everybody was ready now.

"Alright, guys. Remember what happened with Cato, Nick and Christina?"

Blank stares. Then a collective nodding.

"Well, whatever that weird teleporting thing was, it happened when we got to close to the Underground," I pointed out. "So it makes sense that to rescue Nick, we have to go back there and beat Cato down!"

"And he'll probably kill us because he's all-powerful and we have no plan!" Iggy added with enthusiasm. Then he seemed to consider this. "Huh."

"I'm not gonna lie," Total sighed. "We have about a mouse's chance in a field of cats."

"Hey, come on!" I said, exasperated, trying to hide the fact that I knew Total was right. "Nick wouldn't give up on us! That one time that the school got us when we were rescuing Angel? He could've left us there to die! But he saved us!"

"Yeah, but Nick can do anything," Gazzy said with a scowl. "He'd save us because he could. We can't."

"Alright," I sighed. "We don't know what Cato's capable of, I'll admit that. But when we team up, we can take Nick down. Why would Cato be any different?!"

Nobody spoke.

"Don't you care about what happens to Nick?!" I asked, almost letting a couple of tears slip. "Don't you want him to get out of this?! Aren't you willing to help him?! Guys, we've been through hell and back. Whatever they throw at us, we can just throw right back! We HAVE to help him!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Let's do it!"

Everyone shouted their agreement, determination evident on their faces.

"Now let's fly over there and kick their butts!"

Suddenly, a hole opened beneath us and we were flung into darkness.

3-3-3-3-3

At the end of what seemed like a three mile long slide, we plopped down unceremoniously onto a blue fabric mat in a pile of jumbled-up bird kid a la messy.

"Ow..." Nudge groaned.

"Can somebody get their cheeks off of my face?!" Iggy shouted furiously.

"That's not my face, Iggy..." Gazzy muttered.

"I KNOW!"

"Well, hello my friends!" a voice seemed to emanate from everywhere as we righted ourselves, standing up and stretching our wings out, on high alert. "You're looking bright-eyed and bushy tail-feathered!"

"Nick?!" I asked, recognizing the voice immediately.

"Yeah!" he said, and I finally got a glimpse of my surroundings, seeing him tied up on the other side of a glass wall. He grinned, seeming giddy, despite the fact that he was bound in some sort of shining wire.

"What's with the happy face?" I asked him, unable to help but grin at him. At least he was alive- for the moment.

"Well, now that you're here, you can get me out!" he told me with glee. "Look to your left! There's a door there! They put the key to this room and a cake in there for safekeeping- and they left the door UNLOCKED! Can you believe that?!"

Silence.

"It's kind of hard to," I muttered, looking at the door. It was just five feet away, beckoning for me. Way too convenient.

"Max, hurry before they realize what's going on!" Nick shouted, looking to the door with panic.

"I really don't trust this," I murmured. _Why were we brought here?_

"Oh, that?" Nick asked, and I remembered that our minds were linked. "You were supposed to be thrown into a pit of blenders and raiders, but I moved the tunnel with the Merciless to bring you here!"

"If you can use the Merciless, why are you still tied up?" I asked suspiciously.

"I got lucky!" he told me with a grin. "I haven't been able to use it for a little while, but I just got to!"

"Nick, I'm flattered you brought us here, but why didn't you just let yourself loose instead?"

"Well, too late now!" he said hurriedly. "Hurry, they're coming!"

Footsteps resounded from behind us, and my suspicions instantly died. Whatever chance at releasing Nick we had, we needed. I lunged for the door, grabbing the handle and yanking it down. The door came with it.

Rather, the cardboard cutout of a door came with it.

"_I honestly, truly didn't think you'd fall for that,"_ Nick's voice said, tough this time it came from a speaker just above where the door was. _"If I'd known it would be this easy, I would've just dangled a cookie from the ceiling on a string. I had a trap planned for after you got past this, actually."_

Of course it was a trap. I knew it, and you all knew it, didn't you?

WELL, WHY DIDN'T YOU FREAKING TELL ME?!

"_Let's get down to business, hm team?"_ Nick asked us before the entire world seemed to blank out and was replaced by another one- this one surrounding us with metal walls, with a balcony in front of us where someone was standing.

"Hello, flockers," he said to us, leaning over the silver railing of the balcony.

_Flockers? Flockers. That's a new one._

"Who are you?!" I asked him angrily, dropping the cardboard door.

"A friend of Nick's," he told us with an almost convincing smile. Honest-to-god, he looked happy. From what I could see, at least. He was wearing a black hoodie, a shadow cast over his face, with only the movements of his mouth tipping me off to his expression.

"Whoa, calm down, girly," he said suddenly, looking to Angel piteously. "I've hardly said a thing yet."

Angel was quaking next to me, tears in her eyes. Okay, she was the youngest of us, but that sill caught me off guard.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" the man said in my voice, cutting me off as I began to ask her the same question. Shocked, I looked up towards him.

"We both read minds," he said, gesturing to Angel with a little wave. "I guess she tried to peak into mine. A bit much to bear, wasn't it?"

She hiccupped, not even able to form a word as her eyes poured waterfalls out.

_M-Max, h-he-_

I laid a hand on top of her head. For his entire innocent exterior, this guy had some thoughts in his head horrid enough to drive Angel this far into terror below it.

We were in trouble. This was about as bad as being trapped by whitecoats. No, this was worse.

"I'm guessing you guessed it, Max," he said directly to me, remaining calm. "I don't wanna get rough with you, but..." he chuckled, a high, mirthful sound that chilled me to the bones. "If you force me to, I can get pretty serious. And you don't really want that."

"What do you know about Nick?" I asked him. For a guy claiming to be Nick's friend, he clearly wasn't Nick's kind of guy.

"I've known him sense he was born, really," he told me. "But that's all I'm telling you for now. I have a bargain to make with you."

"Bargain?" Fang asked warily.

"See, I'm willing to divulge as much information about you guys as you'd like," he said, eyeing us each with a smile. "If, that is, you're willing to combat a few of my friends. The longer you fight, the more I reveal."

"What's the catch?" I asked him, seeing no escape route as I scanned the room.

"No catch," he said honestly. "You don't wanna do this, you're home free. I'll let you go. But if you wanna do it, you'll have to do it-" suddenly his expression went cold.

"Until you die."

Shocked, I looked up to hear him laughing wholeheartedly.

"But you'll probably finish LONG before then. It's not like I have a limitless supply of fighters or anything. I mean, come on. The infamous Maximum Ride and her flock of avian-human warriors! You've got a great chance here."

"..."

This had to be another trap. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on bleh- I'm dead.

But he had Nick. He also had information we'd been searching for ever since we escaped the school.

Run away, leaving Nick behind? Or fight for all of our freedom?

A literal fight or flight situation.

Fang looked determined, his jaw set and eyes narrow. Iggy's stature was similar, but with some hesitance. Gazzy was making a scrunched up, yet somewhat intimidating face, like "Son, you touch my lunch money, and you'll be part of that tree over there!"

Nudge was holding Angel, hugging her small shoulders, whispering words of comfort as she sniveled.

Wait a minute... where was Total?

"Where's Total?" I voiced the question, looking around.

"You don't need him to fight, do you?" he asked, seeming to raise an eyebrow. "I figured it wouldn't be necessary to endanger him. You can have him back if you want to leave."

And leave Nick to stay here and rot? Heck no.

"Are we doing this?" I asked in a whisper. Fang nodded. Nobody else did.

"Alright. We're ready."

"Are you sure?" he asked with a malignant grin as a door suddenly opened up below the balcony.

Derasers swarmed from the newly open wall snarling and gnashing at the air. I froze up. Everyone did. Memories of my past experience with these guys flooded my mind, and fear nearly overtook me. But I had to be strong. I was the leader, after all.

"Let's take these guys the flock out!" I shouted, and a resounding "Yeah!" came from the team.

We kicked, we punched, we chopped, we rammed, and we did everything in our power to take the freaks down. It seemed like hours, but was probably just minutes.

"Back when you fought those guys before," the mystery figure intoned. "That was a fake Nick that saved you. He wanted to research you, to see how many each of you could take on by yourselves.

"Together, you're doing exponentially well than he recorded," he told us as I let a wing out with a snap, knocking one away from Nudge, who had boosted Angel upward. She came down hard, taking about seven down with her limbs and body.

So we were right about the fake Nick. He'd shown up more than we'd realized.

"When he rescued you as a group from the Derasers, that was the fake too," he continued, walking back and forth on the balcony thoughtfully. "You've been fooled by this guy... twice, I want to say."

"And?!" Fang asked in a shout as his foot split a Deraser in two before it dissipated. "What else?!"

"Sara, Kimmy, Kiki, Camo and Espio all worked for the fake Nick," he went on. "They were robots, actually. They were drones that he designed to obey his every will. When they started developing personality, or in the younger ones' cases, losing them, he moved them along to lure them away. I tried rescuing Nick once, but I failed. They learned that I'd been spying on them and beat me down pretty hard. But not before I managed to steal these guys from them."

"And you're just letting us kill them?!" I asked, shell-shocked, or feather-shocked, by these revelations.

"I'm disposing of them, yes," he confirmed. "Better dead than in their hands, you know?"

Huh. Maybe this guy was on our side after all.

"What about the trap?"

"I wanted to see how gullible you were."

"This test?"

"How combat-ready you are."

"And the Nick behind that glass wall?"

"A hologram. If you aren't prepared, whatever these guys have planned will bowl you over. And over, and over." He was turning serious again. "I just want you to be ready."

Finally, the last Deraser went down under my nearly ashen sneaker.

"Are we done here?" I asked, panting. "Where's Total?"

"One more thing," he said, raising a palm. "One more person you have to fight. The last thing I got from the faker."

"What is it?" Iggy asked, out of breath.

"Their most incredible device. You take this out, they're dead."

Wow. Pretty straight forward.

"Alright, let's do this," I whispered as the door opened once more, slowly this time.

"This thing is so powerful," he warned us ominously. "The greatest foe you'll ever face. The utter embodiment of perfection. I guess it's only fitting."

"What is?" I asked as a black-cloaked figure walked in from the door, watching it with unease.

"That I made him in my image."

Suddenly, the figure's fist was in my stomach, and his hood flipped back.

Nick.


	4. Chapter 4

Nick the Eraser 3 chapter 4

I groaned, consciousness slowly coming back to me as I rolled onto my side, a frigid, metallic floor resting beneath me. The familiar stenches of blood and various chemicals flowed into my nostrils as my eyes flipped open, my vision blurry, as though I was underwater. I could barely make out a dull, crimson light. I blinked a couple of times, uncertain of what was going on. My ears registered a faint humming accompanied by a high-pitched whirring sound. My vision eventually cleared, revealing the light's source to be multiple horizontal columns of crimson.

_Lasers? A cage, maybe?_

My eyes rolled skyward, and I saw more of them, just high enough that I could sit up and look around- which I did. I let my tongue loll over my parched lips and tasted that horrible tang I knew all too well- blood.

_Where's the flock? Sara? Kimmy? Kiki? I... I'm all alone._

This situation wasn't looking so hot.

_Christy?_

Nothing.

I sighed, staring at this laser cage I was trapped in. A rock, just smaller than my fist, was lying on the floor next to me, a door to the outside not three feet away. I lifted the rock gingerly before scooting it towards the laser. Upon contact, it disintegrated faster than a leaf in a forest fire.

So. They weren't infrared sensors, they were heated death traps. Now I knew.

Meaning that it was perfectly safe to go through them.

I coated myself with a thin layer of the Merciless, closing my eyes in focus. I stretched my leg out through the laser, pushing myself along the ground until I was OUT, baby. I was hardly a foot from the door.

_Just two more seconds, and..._

Suddenly, the otherwise pitch-black room became awash with retina-searing light. The door disappeared, being replaced by a white tiled wall. Startled, in a panic, I jumped back on all fours, landing flat on my back with a resounding _thud._

"Good job, Nick," I heard a voice, too familiar to mistake, walking into the room from behind me. I whirled around to see Cato, a dismal stare directed towards me.

"You!" I shouted, as everything came back to me. "I'll kill you!"

Rage flooded my veins as I catapulted myself off the ground towards him, fist cocked back. My hand jetted forward faster than a rocket (fittingly enough) straight into his face.

Or I could have sworn.

His hand was wrapped neatly around my forearm, my hand never once having connected with his skin. His expression changed slightly, almost piteous towards me.

"Come on," he growled, but I could tell his heart wasn't in it. "There's somebody you need to talk to.

"No way!" I shot back, yanking the arm he'd grappled onto down and throwing myself up, kicking him in the chest with bone-shattering force.

Again- I could have sworn.

In reality, he'd grabbed onto my leg before completing the flip I'd started, landing me squarely on my feet. I crouched down, my knees absorbing the impact on instinct as I blinked dumbly.

"We don't have all day, you know," he sighed. "Let's go."

"Never!" I rose my arm, arming it with the Merciless' blood-red light. I fired a sphere of it towards him and watched- WATCHED- as it threw him backwards, causing him to dematerialize all the way.

I thought so...

He simply stood there as the Merciless disappeared, two inches from his face.

"All right, that's enough," he told me, his fist being the last thing I saw before bursting pain and darkness followed.

3-3-3-3-3

When I once again came to, I found myself on yet another metallic, ice-cold floor. I lifted my head numbly, blinking back the initial blurriness again.

"Nick," a new voice said to me, sounding jubilant. "You're awake."

Hold on- that voice wasn't new at all.

"Wha's 'appenin'?" I croaked weakly, my throat scratching on every syllable. I attempted to rise- an attempt which ended in screaming failure as pain laced through every part of me.

"Easy, easy," the person said, sounding as though they were talking to a disobedient horse of some sort. "You haven't fully recovered yet."

"Recovered?"

"Cato really is sorry," he said to me with sadness in his voice. "But you were resisting him too much. He had to rough you up a bit."

"But he only punched me once," I whispered, spitting a blot of red onto the floor. "How did-?"

"They only get stronger, hm?" he asked with a chuckle. "Robots like him."

_What?_

"Robots?!" I asked with a surprised shout. "He's a robot?!"

"Much like you are," he told me with a simple shrug.

_... WHAT?!_

"What are you talking about?!" I choked on the air as I spoke from my spot on the ground. "I'm not a-"

"Oh, but you are, Nick," he cut me off. "Every single thing you do- it's all been set to be done."

"You're lying!" I cried. "How could I be a robot?! I've got a girlfriend, a family! I love them all! Can a robot do that?!"

"If it is so programmed," he shrugged. "And with the technology I am able to expend, it wasn't difficult to simulate the feelings of love in your mind."

Could it be true? My heart- or what might've been my heart went cold.

"No... No, NO!" I shouted. "I can't believe you! Not after everything I've been through!"

He slowly reached behind his back.

"You're trying to manipulate me, just like the School! You'll say anything to get me to do what you want! I'm not going to fall for what you're saying! You're-"

"Shut up."

Two simple words, layered with venom, silencing me and chilling me to the bone.

"Yes, master," I found the words leaving my mouth without my consent. "Wha-"

"Stand."

Although I thought I'd die from the pain, I rose from the frigid tiles, pushing myself up with my hands and forcing myself to my feet.

"Yes master- No! I don't-"

"Walk."

Step by painful step, I walked to him, hands clenching from my efforts to stop moving, but even they eventually came to go still.

"Yes, master."

I couldn't protest. There was nothing I could do. I screamed on the inside to stop, but nothing helped.

He revealed what was behind his back with a flick of his wrist, revealing a small, silver, spherical object to bigger than the tip of his thumb.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked me with a grin. "Very sensitive though. One touch here-" he tapped the top of the sphere.

My wings unfurled with a snap, to my horror.

"Another here-"

I raised an arm coated in Merciless, aiming it at him. Wait, was he-?

"And one more here-"

I fired. The shot phased right through him, bouncing off the surrounding walls.

Oh no.

"Yup, I'm just a hologram," he told me. "I'm actually somewhere else, very far away from here. But you've probably guesses what this little doodad of mine is."

"Yes master."

"Your brain. I control your every movement."

Oh no.

"I stole this off of the people controlling you just recently so that I could rescue you from the rest of the world, which was trying to use you for their enjoyment."

What?

"It's true. All the people of the world watched you on television, toying with your simulated emotions, amused by your actions."

Everything... that was just a ploy?

"You developed a real personality over time, but that just made it funnier for them. They enjoyed watching you suffer; watching you feel what you thought was love while they laughed in the shadows. You were mankind's toy, and nothing more."

No...

"But that's why I'm here- metaphorically. To help you exact your revenge against them."

What?

"I can let you loose, let you tear down everything. Destroy every worthless shmuck on this planet. Every individual that laughed at you and used you for their cruel sport!"

Yes... I had to kill them all...

"We'll start with that treacherous flock," he told me. "You can show the world your righteous fury and obliterate them. Send the message that you hated being trifled with and that it will never happen again."

"Why would you help me?" I asked him, my own voice, and my own control.

"Because I hated watching you be manipulated like a puppet," he told me. "Nobody deserves what they did, even if you are a robot. They don't deserve to tell you how to play your game."

He was right. Every word was true. I could tell. That had been about an hour before now.

Now, as I walk through these doors, I see the six people mainly responsible for my never ending torment.

I'll end them her and now.

I leap out and land the first strike.


	5. Chapter 5

Nick the Eraser 3 chapter 5

I discard my coat, letting it fall to the ground. The George Washington Bridge never symbolized much to me, but now it symbolizes the entrapment of my first target. Each bridge on this island that may connect it to an escape, every coastline, every airway, I've got within my grasp. Nobody in this ever popular city will escape me today.

Of course, I could just end it with a snap of my fingers; let the place be decimated by my Merciless. But where would be the fun in that? Nowhere, that's where. If they were to all die immediately, what message would be sent? An unexplainable explosion racked New York City, decimating the island and obliterating its inhabitants?

No. This is going to be excruciatingly slow and painful for every New Yorker here. Just as it was for them...

I shake my head to clear it, morphing into an Eraser for the first time in what feels like ages, but was really just yesterday. It's better that they're gone now.

"_Now that is a REALLY new look for you," _he whistles over to my end through my earpiece. _"Why the sudden color change?"_

"Color change?" I ask, looking down at myself. "Oh. I guess I just haven't gotten the stains out yet."

"_Well, I like it better this way," _I can hear the morbid grin in his voice. _"Red suits you better than white does."_

I smirk. This guy is twisted, a real screwball. I like that about him.

"_Aside from that, shouldn't you demorph until you're ready for this?" _

"Oh, right. You got it ready?" I ask him, adjusting the hovering camera pod's lens.

"_We are live in three... two... one... Now."_

3-3-3-3-3

"Yo, Roy!" says a man sitting in front of the tv as his roommate runs in. "What happened to football?!"

"Dude, I dunno," Roy says, looking at the screen with a cocked head. "Never seen this guy before."

"_Hello to all of you," _he says through the television. _"Doubtless you know who I am. I'll say it anyway- I'm Nick Tundra. Sorry if you're missing a game right now or something. I have something you all need to see, though, so just bear with me."_

3-3-3-3-3

"Why'd the Smartboard turn on?" Ella asks her teacher, looking at the screen and gasping. "Nick?!"

"You know this person?" Shaw asks her, math work long forgotten at this new development.

"He's an old friend of mine," she tells him.

"Really?" Shaw looks at the screen with a bit of jealousy as the class murmurs their thoughts.

"He's kinda cute..."

"What's with his hair?"

"Who the heck is this guy?"

"What is he up to?" Ella asks herself as Nick smiled at the camera.

"_Now, you probably know where I am, considering the circumstances. Pretty nice bridge, huh? Pretty famous one, too."_

3-3-3-3-3

"Nick?" Doctor Martinez stares at the screen in confusion. "What'd he get himself into this time?"

"_One island, one huge city, just the start of my challenge. I'm assuming you already know what I'm getting at." _

"What's with all these assumptions?" she asks herself, staring at the screen. Nothing he'd said made any sense whatsoever.

3-3-3-3-3

The bridges explode at their bases, falling into the waiting ocean. A red light burst from my hand into the sky, erecting a dome around Manhattan. There was no escape and no entry.

"Each and every one of you will have suffered before I'm done," I go on, grinning as I morph. "Equal treatment- you have your fun, I'll have mine. Now, I'm going to start here in Manhattan, and I'll decide where to go from there."

From my current vantage point, I can hear the screams of the New Yorkers, watching their cars derail themselves as they receive the news via radio. I've hardly moved an inch, and already cars are driving into each other, piling up.

"You know," I say to the camera as I turn it towards the street. "You can really get your hands dirty, toying with lives like this. Wouldn't you know, though?"

I flick my wrist, and red lightning cripples the vehicles for a split second before the fuel ignites and they explode.

"I'll make sure to get some gloves."

3-3-3-3-3

"Wake up! Come on, we gotta blow this joint!"

I awaken to Total's fearful yipping, groaning at the pain in my head, ribs, stomach.. everywhere, really. It feels like somebody used me as a hacky sack. I hear a _tsking _and raise my head to see the guy from before, still on his balcony. The room looks... different somehow. Older. Less used, but more worn out.

"That was over even more quickly than I expected," he says disapprovingly. I definitely recognize the voice as yesterday's events come back to me.

"Nick," I croak, hoping it's more from pain than despair. Because I don't do despair.

"Nope," he responds, stepping out from the shadows to reveal a face clad in aviator goggles.

No way.

"Leroy?"

"Exactly," he says, before revising. "Well, not EXACTLY, but you're in the ballpark."

"What's-"

"Going on?" he grins. "It's simple, really. You've been played from the very beginning by me."  
"What?"

"Let's start at the beginning," he says, hopping the twisted railing and landing a few feet in front of me, having spread his raider wings to slow his descent. "First of all, the person you're seeing? Leroy? I'm just talking through him. I'm really somewhere safe and sound, out of range of the carnage."

"Carnage?" What the heck was he talking about?

"I'll tell you what I'm talking about," he goes on, circling me as I tried to stand with no results other than a screaming pain in my midriff. "You see, the person you know as Nick Tundra? He doesn't exist.

_... What?_

"Yup, he was just one of the many lines of robots created by yours truly," he tells me, continuing to circle me, drawing ever nearer. Total growls, but is silenced by a scowl from the guy who I'd used to call 'goggles boy.' "Just like Leroy, here. He was one of the first few thousand. I'm able to make one robot, successful or not, out of every corpse I find. And with connections to the school?" he smirks, laughing a hearty laugh. "That's a lot of corpses."

What he's said is so callous, so horrifying, I find myself crawling backwards away from him.

"Anyways, I ordered them with one through five letters, and Leroy here was model A-L-P-H-A. Not a coincidence that he chose that nickname after all, hm? Models C-A-M-O and E-S-P-I-O came much, much later. You know them as well, hm?"

Mortification is written all over my face.

"They were special. They asked to be killed and turned into robots after an... 'unfortunate accident' with their sister."

"Meaning you murdered her!"

"Simple case of distracted cab driving. Shouldn't have been doing my hair," he dismisses me with a wave of his hand. "They started like all the other living ones did- emotionless mercenaries. But they slowly developed conscience and emotion after spending time with you. So, of course, they were disposed of."

"K-I-M-M-Y and K-I-K-I? Children who died during an unsuccessful experiment with cheetah DNA. Cute and convenient enough to appear unthreatening."

"Now, model N-O-1..." he grins. "Now there was a special case. He donated his heart after he learned of his mother's death. Saved a little girl's life- a little girl who later went on to become model S-A-R-A."

"N-O-1?"

"He eventually began growing up," he ignores me. "After I remade him. His emotions laid dormant for the first few years, but when he was about seven, in his new life, that is, he started redeveloping them. He was a punching bag for Erasers for a long time. That was when he met you."

Oh God.

Was he going where I thought he was?

"That was when he met you," he tells me, kneeling down in front of me. I've backed up to a wall, with nowhere to go. "Meeting you caused his emotions to die again and he was the perfect mercenary once more until you met once more. A couple of mistakes on his part and he's following you like a puppy."

Oh God...

I couldn't stop the tears from flowing as I realize exactly where he's going with this.

"He continued to stay with you for quite some time, and then was brought back to me just recently. He acted as though he loved you so that he could build up his strength, harness the power that had revived him. And now he's brought you to me. I'm sure you know who he is."

I look down, my tears flowing freely. Nick. Nick was N-O-1.

"Oh, darling, you can't blame him," Leroy says, embracing me. "It was only in his programming."

For a moment, I am comforted by his embrace. Then I remember just who this is, what is happening.

He lifts me by my throat, and I... enjoy it. I've never felt a more touching gesture.

"Which leads on to the last part," he finishes, staring deeply into my eyes, the tinted goggles blocking me from seeing his own as I gag against his hand. "Playing with your minds, changing your emotions to what suits my gain. Making you think what I want you to think, all to make N-O-1 stronger. Everything scripted down to the tone of your voice."

"You're lying," I choke out, as pieces come together slowly. I manage a smirk as I say "If that was all true, you wouldn't have told me."

"It's very true," he grins back as my expression switches back to dismay. "I'm telling you because I know there's nothing you can do about it."

"How about some new models, then?" he asks me. I haven't used the titles F-A-N-G, I-G-G-Y, A-N-G-E-L, N-U-D-G-E, or G-A-Z-Z-Y yet."

"You killed them." My eyes widen, my heart stops. My flock, my family, all dead? As if I didn't have enough to NOT handle already!

"Kidding," he says, jumping back up to his veranda as suddenly my flock appears around me, looking up at him. "Just restating my point."

Angel, Nudge and Gazzy have faces streaked with dirt, tears and blood. Fang and Iggy are silent, faces also bloodied as they stare, unbelieving, at the ground.

"Why?!" I shout up to him, anger hardly making it to my words through my sobs. "Why would you do all this?! Recycling bodies?! Tricking us into loving a machine?! What purpose does it all serve in the end, huh?!"

"So glad you asked." He spreads his arms out smiling. "All of it was for one thing... To wipe humans and mutants alike off of the face of the planet."

He turns around and walks out through the door, leaving us alone.

3-3-3-3-3

"You're free to go," Cato tells her, walking away from the cell door.

"What?" she looks up at him from the floor.

"He doesn't need you here, so you're free to go."

"..."

"Go on," he sighs as he stands off to the side.

"... Which model are you?"

"... C-A-T-O."

"That's why they called you that."

"... Christy, I-"

"Don't you call me that!" she sobs, burying her face in her hands. "That name is reserved for my brother and boyfriend! Nobody else can use it!"

Her words sting him visibly as he hangs his head low. With all the tears she's shed, he'd figured she'd be out. Out of all the pawns in this experiment, she'd been the only human outside of the flock. His guilt is too much to handle, and he lifts her into a hug.

"Christy-na," he corrects himself as she cries into his chest. "Nick's here. He's on the third floor, room six."

She looked up at him before breaking out of her embrace and dashing out the cell door.

"Christina!" she stops, but doesn't turn around.

"Do things have to be this way?" his voice is broken, and his eyes pained.

"... Colin, if it's really you in there," she whispers. "I'm sorry. But I can't take risks like this. Not even for you."

"And yet you can for him," Cato whispers as he looks to the floor.


	6. Chapter 6

Theanimedude: Read, review, whatever. If you missed me, tell me. If you didn't, don't. That's all. This is Nick the Eraser. Have at it.

Nick the Eraser 3 chapter 6

The feeling of having the whole world at your fingertips... A huge city enwrapped by your will, the rest of the planet entrapped by your mind... One would think it would be nothing short of extraordinary.

I am now truly limitless... And yet I have nothing to show for it. What do I want to do? In all honesty, what is my utmost desire? No matter how much joy those that have used me obtained from doing so, I find no satisfaction in making a massacre of them. I had imagined that nothing would make me feel better than to feel their heart's last attempt to pump their life into them, hear their screams of shortened agony, watch their bodies disintegrate before my eyes, smell the charred flesh and taste their blood in the air as I stepped upon their lifeless carcasses... But in the end, it doesn't make me any happier than before. It makes me feel kind of sick...

There are millions of cameras around the planet, all set so that I can see them through my bionic eyes. I have power over everything within my perception... And there's nothing I can't see. Who hasn't wished that they could have superpowers, huh? Even adults wish they could fly to work...

Why? Shouldn't I be receiving happiness? Shouldn't I feel some sort of pleasure? Everybody's supposed to love revenge... Maybe if I sit down and think about it all...

What did these people do to me? They used me for visual pleasure. They controlled my every action and put me on television. I was a puppet, right? That would've made me feel weak and powerless... But I never knew. Now that I did know, I wasn't actually very angry at them... So killing them wouldn't make me happy.

That's all I wanted, some fledgling of an emotion that I once knew. When was the last time I'd been happy?

It had been... It had been when I was with my girlfriend. Christina. Christy...

But she was just another one of their tools. Not a real person. All the happiness I'd ever felt had been with people who didn't exist, people who were programmed to make me believe that they weren't, in fact, programmed. Puppets... like me.

And yet... I remember the feeling of happiness I'd had when I'd been with them. How it had felt. Whether or not it was real, it had felt good...

How could I, truly, find this feeling of happiness, when the only happiness I'd ever actually known was simulated? Who's to say that whatever happiness I feel from now on ISN'T simulated?! How can I feel alive?!

"I hate feeling like this..." I whisper hoarsely, opening my eyes and switching my vision to what laud before them as opposed to the many cameras layering the planet. I reach for a glass of water... And shatter it the second I take it in my hand. My blood and the clear liquid from the fragmented glass melded together, giving me goosebumps and shivers as it trickles down my arm.

_That's right, _I thought. _I can still feel pain... That means I'm alive... _

But pain of the body and pain of the mind were two things I knew all too well. The worst things to cling to, and yet being rid of them would destroy my feeling of life... What kind of life is that, a life in which one can only feel and cause pain?

Not the kind of life I want to live. Suicide is an option... But I fear what may lie beyond the grave. A precious afterlife? Or an eternal pain? I don't know what there is for those who have passed on. Life holds no meaning for me... But I fear what meaning may come from death may be unpleasant.

Where, then, do I turn?

So many questions I can't answer... So many answers I don't know.

I am not limitless. I'm weaker now than I was when I was a puppet.

Wait... I don't know how to live because I never had a chance to live the way I would've wanted to. Because my life was robbed from me.

This knowledge angers me. Looking back, I can see the faces of all those I've killed since my release, twisted in agony, pleading for mercy...

It enthralls me. And rightfully so... I now know what will make me happy. And all it will take is the things I've been doing until now. Everything works out.

The pain that I had received from my puppeteers would be paid back by my own actions- And in turn, I would find the meaning I desired so amply.

I grin, licking my dry lips, bloodied by my past actions. I know my purpose. I know my plan.

And I know just how to make it go perfectly.

Picture, if you will, perfect darkness, in which there is nothing put numbness and a deep, chilling cold. You are unable to move. You are unable to speak. Only to endlessly fall in a literally endless pit. No solace. You are forced to live without life, with only your thoughts to accompany you. You would beg for something, anything, to free you from your eternal prison.

And then... When you least expect it... Fire will engulf you for as long as I deem you to be aflame. How nice it is to live, hm?

I laugh to myself scratchily, and rise unsteadily. I am weak due to my time sitting still. I make my way towards the door of this dark cell, staggering with each step. When I reach it, lowering my hand to the knob, the door flies open.

3-3-3-3-3

I remember a lot of the past... I remember that my brother was taken from me when he was six, and that he'd called me Christy before. And I remember the first time I heard Nick's name spoken.

Nick Tundra... I remember there was a time that he was just a myth. Some of the other prisoners in my school in Virginia had talked about him, about how the whitecoats cursed his name. He had sounded like a rebellious sort of person, and I admired the thought of him because of that. He was an interesting thing to contemplate. What was his goal? Where was he? Would he help us in the future?

I guess it didn't matter much to me after I broke out again. I'd taught myself to fight over time, and kicked some major butt. I ran away as fast as my legs could carry me, and found out I was one of the more successful experiments.

But how was I going to live without the school? With another, much more PC one, that's how. I enrolled myself in a school under my own name, with a last name separate from my own.

To be honest, I couldn't tell you my last name if you asked. It's not like I keep it a secret, I just never knew it. I decided a last name really didn't matter, so I just signed myself in as the principle's daughter, because I knew he was part of the school and would suspect I was in check if he saw me under his family name.

Yeah, it worked, but it didn't keep a lot of guys from trying to date me. And, you know, that wasn't a bad thing, because it meant I was trusted, for one thing, and... Well, hot, for another.

Girls met me, wanted to be my friend, and they even asked me for FASHION TIPS. Like, really? All I ever wore was junk I found and cleaned up, and most of the time I was in uniform, anyway.

Yes, I did just refer to clothes as junk. Acting feminine was acting for me. I was a survivor, and a good one at that. But some part of me managed to find guys that wanted to take me out, and I was happy that I'd made so many friends. So many doting friends that would kiss me, dance with me, everything. If I asked for it, I got it. It felt so normal... And let me tell ya, normal felt **great!**

But it turns out kissing is more of a relationship exclusive thing... So is dancing... And about everything else that I thought friends did. How could I have known? There had never been anyone to guide me, I hadn't watched a single second of television, and I probably never would have found out until that one night when I went to see a movie about a love triangle with one of my "friends." I realized I was living in something more like a love octagon.

I broke up with all my boyfriends, telling them that they could never really love me- which was true. Useless wings, you know... Plus, relationships went deeper than I'd naively thought, but none of them accepted that.

I was branded as a... Well, a really mean name that you could probably guess. Now, I wasn't a popular, kind, beautiful face... I was just a pretty one. And of course, there were the people that didn't even want me to be that.

I was glared at, I was ridiculed, and my hair was painted millions of colors when I walked down the halls... I was a clown, and many other unspeakable names. When I went home every day, which was really nothing more than a tree house a few miles from the school I attended, I'd sob. But I remembered that anything they said couldn't be worse than what had been going on with the whitecoats.

I'd think about the worst things to get through what seemed bad. I'd think about the worst of the worst things to keep from collapsing when I was beaten. All of it was better than what the whitecoats at the school could've done. It got to the point that I was laughing when I was beaten up.

And eventually, I found an even better way to cope with it.

I was unnaturally fast, and I still am to this day. I could run at the full speed of my ridiculers and not even break a sweat. And when they wore out, they'd redouble their efforts, chasing me in trucks borrowed from their parents. I'd hide; they'd either give up their search or crash.

In the end, it all paid off, because they would even begrudgingly give up on their attempts to hurt meat all, just avoiding me instead. But there was something I couldn't get away from, something that only became more prominent as I ran... Loneliness.

So when I met the tall, handsome blonde who had enlisted himself in that school under the Walker name, I went straight to him, desperate for a friend.

Being around him made me feel vulnerable, as I had no idea what he wanted from me... But he wasn't like the other boys. He didn't want me, per se, but he wanted to be with me. He was shy, kind, and so much like me. He complimented me at every turn, made me feel like I could trust him.

So one night, at one point, I told him how so many people despised me. He didn't even care. In fact, when people tried to bother me again, he stood up for me. He was always there, and I was always sad when he had to go.

He disarmed me. He broke down my defenses bit by bit. And just when everything was perfect and we were on our first date, I spilled everything to him, how I'd been brought to an orphanage (the school,) how I'd been beaten by my foster parents (the whitecoats, Cato, erasers, all that jazz) everything but my wings.

What did he do? He comforted me. A normal guy would've felt awkward, walked away and left me to choke on my tears. But he stayed there, he held my hand, and whispered sweet words to me atop a lake. He had to be the one I spent my life with, and part of me was more sure of it than the sensible part of me.

My heart reacted before my mind could stop me and the first kiss that really mattered to me happened that night. He shared it with me and unearthed my biggest secret. Had I stayed two seconds longer, maybe he would have told me he also had that secret. I found out about an hour later though, and I was so thrilled I could hardly believe it.

Of course, I also found out that this tall, handsome blonde was Nick Tundra. Like, whoa, did I know how to pick 'em, huh?

His beautiful oceanic eyes were mostly for me, but my eyes were ONLY for him. He loved his sister Sara just as much as he loved his girlfriend- me.

Unfortunately, with how he doted on me, I got to the point that I was kind of attached, so when his little sister died, I wasn't willing to accept that his attention wasn't on me. Reality literally slapped me in the face when Leroy... Um, Alpha enlightened me of the seriousness of death.

He was going through pain that I couldn't mend by myself... But when that pain was gone and Sara was back, he gave me loads of attention. I get butterflies every time I think about how we kissed... And when he proposed to me, I couldn't have been happier.

But then I found out that he was- pause for effect- a robot. A. Robot. And better yet, one that was supposed to wipe out the human race.

What am I supposed to think about that? Like I come home, married, and say "Hi honey, how was work? You killed 500 people today? Oh, great job, you sexy murderer you!"

Needless to say, it tore me apart. I cried and cried and cried. I'd dealt with a lot, too much, too much. I needed to let it all out so I could be strong in the future.

I decided right there in that dark, freezing cell, if I ever saw him again, I'd try to make him the way he was before. I had decided that even living in a lie was better than living without somebody to hold me up.

But when I get to his room and see him, he doesn't spare me a glance. He rushes past me, and I'm faced with the futility of my efforts.

I've cried all I can. I can't even force myself to anymore. I need to be strong for myself and the rest of the world. I need to be my own backbone for once and fight like I want to live. My name should be Christina Solus... It's a Latin word meaning alone.

Christina Tundra is a terrible name anyway...

Theanimedude: Still hate her? Bite me. Never hated her to begin with? Thank you, that's refreshing. Tell me what you wanna see in the future, the author's notes, the characters, the plot's unlikely to change, but go ahead and make suggestions!

**I'm doing the villain request again, I'm doing as many as I can take. I need at least seven names and personalities. Help me out, and you'll see what you want. Review and I'll be happy. Thank you all, and have a good day/night.**

New cover IRL: www . backgrounds desktop thumbs/ wolf_with_red_eyes-t2 .jpg


	7. Chapter 7

Theanimedude: Gotta keep writin' for some reason...

Nick the Eraser 3 chapter 7

_So this is how it all ends, huh? _The worthless, defeated model asks me.

"Well, did you honestly expect to win?" I asked him. I'd been occupying his brainwaves for some time now, and he was hardly even a voice in the body that once belonged to him. A-L-P-H-A had never stood a chance and he knew it.

"Face it, weakling, I hold everything. I have N-O-1, I have his mind where it needs to be, the Merciless is in my control, and I didn't even need to sacrifice my body to it."

_You know that if I had my own body, the flock and I could fight you._

"And do what?" I ask, amused. "What could you do that Nick couldn't counter?"

_Do you really want to know?_

I'm interested now. I should know his every thought with his body under my control, but there are clouds looming over this plot of his. I stroll over to a mirror and look into it.

"I'm listening..."

_You've won, Dak. You have nothing to lose. Why not let us fight you? If you were really sure of yourself, you'd be able to beat us without my body, and without them locked up, right? We can't beat Nick and we know it. But what is there left for you if you own the world?_

... There's nothing left. Nothing to amuse me with no life in my way. No risks, no opposition... And whatever tactic he has, he's confident he can use it to defeat me. It may be my last chance to have fun.

I laugh into his, our, face. "Alright, you flawed little specimen... I'll give you a chance. If only to prove how powerless you are against me."

_We'll see._

3-3-3-3-3

So here we are now. My invincible flock and I, beaten down by our trusted brother. We've been locked in the same room we fought off the Derasers in since N-O-1 had kicked our sorry butts. Could he have known that he was a weapon for mass destruction?

I guess it really doesn't matter. In the end, the result is the same. We live in a doomed world in which nobody can do anything to survive. N-O-1 will kill every person, every life, end everything.

Jeb had told me I was supposed to save the world... But from this? How?

I've been curled up, sitting upright, my wings wrapped around the youngest of the flock, all sleeping with tear tracks evident on their faces. Fang's eyes are aimed at the ceiling, and he'll meekly tap his fist on the domed wall behind him every few seconds. Iggy is pacing back and forth a few feet away, eyes narrowed and hands moving randomly, occasionally clenching in front of his face.

"Could you stop that?" I murmur, looking at him with my eyes angled upward. "You're weirding me out."

His eyes dart to me. I can tell he's nervous. He isn't willing to accept that we were beaten. It shows in his eyes.

"After all this," he mutters. "After all the crap we went through..."

He punched the wall next to Fang, startling him and making a deafening _KLANG _sound.

"Hey!" I shout at him as Gazzy and Nudge start to stir. "What is the matter with you?!"

"What's the matter with you, huh Max?!" he fires back, Fang getting to his feet.

"Hey, easy," he says to him.

"You're just going to give up?! We never give up! **You** never give up! What's wrong here is you, not me!"

Iggy's ranting, something he only does when he's really upset.

"Am I the only one here that wants to fight this?! It's not like we haven't faced impossible odds before! We always fight! All our lives we've been fighting! Why should we stop now, huh?!"

Silence fills the underground dome, and my eyes go down to Gazzy and Nudge. Their eyes are wide and fearful, but not towards the enemy. Towards our friend and brother.

"Are you done?" I ask Iggy, and he looks to be with disbelief in his sightless eyes. He backhands the air and goes over to a wall, sitting down.

"We can't fight Nick," I murmur. "Even if we could take him, his Merciless would kill us. Yes, we've fought bad odds before. But nothing literally impossible. Nothing like this."

" ... Tell me something, then," he says after a pause, brokenly. "If we had a chance... Any kind of chance... Would you take it" Could we go for it?"

Everyone's heads turn to me.

"Of course," I tell him. "But we don't have any kind of chance now."

"Oh, really?" Leroy's voice comes to us, and we all freeze. "Because this model seems to think you do."

I look over to see him walking in, wearing jeans and am orange t-shirt with his trademark goggles.

"I'm letting him go," the one who controls him says through his mouth. "And he will take you out of here. Try to make the last few hours of your lives fun for me, eh?"

He lets out one last mirthful laugh before his body goes stiff and he falls to the floor. I stare at him, not knowing what to think as he rises, his hands down, pushing himself upward.

"What's going on?" I ask the question everyone wants answered.

"We have a chance to win this," he says breathlessly, an unbelieving grin on his face. "We might actually win."

"What are you talking about?" Iggy asks, dumbfounded but eager.

"I know how we can beat Dak," he tells us, smiling giddily. "And he's actually going to let me tell you."

"Leroy, are you serious?" Gazzy asks in a joyful bewilderment.

"It's Alpha, kid," he says, nodding anyway. "First things first, though. We've gotta get out of here."

"You have a plan that he's going to let you tell us, but he's not letting us out," Fang mutters. "Typical."

"How?" I ask Alpha, ignoring Fang's pessimism.

"Um," he said, looking up at the ceiling. "We need to find the part that's made of something softer than steel."

"Like iron?" Gazzy asked helpfully.

"Yeah," the Alpha model replied with a grin. "That's where the slide what got you in here is."

"Okay..." I said, looking around. Everything seemed the same to me. Angel was still asleep in my lap, which was odd, considering she was usually up before the rest of us.

"Iggy, you wanna help me out here?" Leroy asked, tapping his hand and moving his finger towards the wall. Iggy nodded and started feeling his way around with both hands, looking for the iron door.

"So what's your big plan?" I asked him, stroking Angel's sleeping head as numbness filled my legs.

"Let's just say if I told you now, he'd be too scared to let us do it," he smirks.

"That's... actually comforting," I say in surprise.

"OMG, are we gonna like, use science or something? Cuz I'm not good with science," Nudge chirps with wide eyes.

"It's really not all that complicated," he shrugs. "You should be able to do it."

"All of us?" Gazzy asks.

"All of you."

"I got something here," Iggy says. "It feels a little softer, less malleable."

"That's it, then," Leroy walked over to Iggy, placing his hand on it. "Hm... Nudgemuffin, could you come over here?"

Smiling at her nickname, she walks cajolingly over and puts her hand over Alpha/Leroy's.

"It's... iron," she whispers. "Layered with copper, I think. So, like, it's stuck in place, and since it's got copper on it, it'll be able to take a lot of heat and force."

"Alright, so a regular bomb isn't gonna cut it," Iggy says, thinking hard about his decision.

"I got it," Alpha smiles, taking off his right glove and putting a hand on the iron door. It instantly started melting before us, dribbling onto the floor in searing orange droplets.

"Whoa," Fang breathed. "I wish I could do that."

"What, ninja camouflage not enough for you?" Alpha is just full of grins, and now they aren't condescending so much as expressions of friendliness.

"Okay, we have to get out through the chute," he says. " Everywhere around the place is compressed air, hot air. We're talking major thermals if they get loose. So if we break one hole into it from right here and then just spread our wings, we should be able to get to the surface in a matter of seconds."

"Hold on guys," I give everyone pause. "A-Angel's not waking up..."

My baby is breathing slowly and deeply, her little chest rising and falling as Alpha comes over to us.

"Let her sleep. She needs to be ready for her job," he instructs me.

Her job?

"I'll take her," Fang says, picking her up from my lap and holding her head over his shoulder. "She'll have to wake up when we're in the chute, right?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Alpha says back. "But this chute twists and turns a **lot. **Make sure to steer well, and wait until the one before you has been in for about a minute before going through."

It kind of bothered me that he was telling my flock what to do... But he knew what he was doing when I'd given up hope.

"Alright," Alpha says. "I'll go in first. Wait one minute, and then send Fang and Angel up. Afterwards, you guys just go whenever you're ready- just remember to wait a minute each time."

He slowly places his gloveless hand on one of the chute's walls, a hole gradually melting into it.

"See you guys at the finish line," he says just before he was pushed up through the tube.

"How do we know we aren't running into a trap?" I ask everyone who's awake.

"It's either this or we wait until we starve," Fang points out, tapping his foot to count the seconds as they tick by.

Fang's right, of course.

3-3-3-3-3

I run into the dome room, where the previously sealed-off door is now open, a current of hot air going upward. An alarm has begun blaring everywhere to signify the escape of the prisoners...

"The flock got away..." I smile. "Straight to the surface. Good for them."

I turn around and jet down the endless maze of stairs and turns, with a plan of my own to set in motion. If I'm loose, they'll assume I tried to escape.

They won't think that I'm here.

I've learned with experience that I'm too fast for the motion sensors here, and video cameras are too slow for me. Dak'll never see me coming...

That is, if I can ever find that jackwit copycat. Fast I may be, but this place was huge! I'm talking seriously humongous. I didn't know where I was to begin with, but I've gotten lost pretty quickly.

"I wish I had some sort of sign," I murmur, rolling my shoulders and giving my tuckered legs a break. I must've been running for a little while, because I'm feeling famished. The air in the underground had always been filtered from above, but I'm not getting enough now. Maybe I've been heading further down without realizing it.

I jet off again, looking for something, anything to go bye, and realize I'm recognizing some things... Like the room with the chute... I've been going in circles.

I swear under my breath, dashing in the opposite direction, but soon enough, I find myself back in the same place. No matter where I go, I end up where I started every time... And I only get more exhausted as I go.

I've been running for hours. The end is nowhere in sight, and I can't even remember what I was searching for in the first place. Maybe a nap wouldn't hurt... Yeah, just a short little break. Dak'll be available for me to kill any time...

3-3-3-3-3

Cato sighs as he picks the rogue girl up, walking back to the dome room. She's desperate to finish Dak off, and he knows she won't be able to. Not on her own.

He carries her to the chute and rides his way up, holding her the whole time. When he gets out in front of a seemingly endless plain, he deposits her in the fine viridian blades of vegetation. She looks so peaceful, more than she'd been since he was six years old.

He hesitates before laying himself down beside her. She's only become more beautiful with time, maturing into a fine young woman. Her cocoa hair stretches down her precious, tan face, unmarred by anything but a small scar. Her mouth is opened just a tiny bit as she snores, blissfully unaware of the world and it's dangerous position. She's practically an angel, her wings fluttering in her sleep. Her jeans looked tight, her red t-shirt that she would've called junk fitting her perfectly.

How he loves her...

He strokes her hair gently, hoping with all of his hope that she doesn't awaken. His hand moves down to her back, rubbing it as well. What would she think if she woke up? There was no telling... And he really needs to get back to work.

"Sweet dreams, big sis," he whispers in her ear, wishing with all his might that he could go with her. Instead, he dives back into the ground, sliding back into his own personal hell.

If only he'd known what side he'd chosen... Then maybe he could be with her again.


End file.
